Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

DISTRIBUTION OF HABITAT-COVERS AND THE SSOCIATED VERTEBRATE WILDLIFE WITH EMPHASIS ON GAUR (BOS GAURUS) IN ETURNAGARAM WILDLIFE SANCTUARY (ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA)

M. Vikram Reddy and M. Bapu Rao

Abstract

Six types of habitat-covers such as forests of both primary and secondary type, grassland, tree-plantation, hill and hillocks, riparia.n vegetation and agriculture fields were identified in the Eturnagaram wildlife sanctuary forests comprising 75% of the total sanctuary area. During the monitoring, 25 species of different wild vertebrates were recorded of which 7 were common, one was very common, four were uncommon, a few were rare and endangered. A total of seven herds of gaur were recorded, the head size varying from 7 to 28 in number and the sex ratio being I :4.8.Their rutting season was spread over December to May. During the rainy season, the gaur was found confining to small hillocks and hard rock grounds with scrub jungles, and migrated to other areas during winter and summer. There were large predators such as tiger and leopard in the sanctuary, in addition to wild dogs.The domestic grazing- cattle formed the major food component of the large predators. Rinderpest caused death in gaur population of the sanctuary; however, not being virulent during the study period.